Opt Lett. 2022 Sep 1;47(17):4303-4306. doi: 10.1364/OL.460496.
Conventional total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy requires either an oil-immersed objective with high numerical aperture or a bulky prism with high refractive index to generate the evanescent waves that work as the illumination source for fluorophores. Precise alignment of the optical path is necessary for optimizing the imaging performance of TIRF microscopy, which increases the operation complexity. In this Letter, a planar photonic chip composed of a dielectric multilayer and a scattering layer is proposed to replace the TIRF objective or the prism. The uniform evanescent waves can be excited under uncollimated incidence through this chip, which simplifies the alignment of the optical configurations and provides shadowless illumination. Due to the separation of the illumination and detection light paths, TIRF microscopy can have a large field-of-view (FOV).
传统的全内反射荧光（TIRF）显微镜需要使用具有高数值孔径的油浸物镜或具有高折射率的大棱镜来产生消逝波，作为荧光团的照明源。为了优化 TIRF 显微镜的成像性能，需要精确调整光路，这增加了操作的复杂性。在这篇信件中，提出了一种由介电多层膜和散射层组成的平面光子芯片来替代 TIRF 物镜或棱镜。通过这种芯片，可以在非准直入射下激发均匀的消逝波，简化了光学配置的对准，并提供了无阴影的照明。由于照明和探测光路的分离，TIRF 显微镜可以具有大的视场（FOV）。
